Chapter 1

Cisco’s Internetworking Operating System (IOS)

The IOS User Interface

The Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) is the kernel of Cisco routers
and most switches.

Cisco Router IOS

The Cisco IOS is a proprietary kernel that provides routing, switching,
internetworking, and telecommunications features. The first IOS was written by
William Yeager in 1986, and it enabled networked applications. It runs on most
Cisco routers as well as an ever-increasing number of Cisco Catalyst switches,
like the Catalyst 2950/2960 and 3550/3560 series switches.

These are some important things that the Cisco router IOS software is
responsible for:

• Carrying network protocols and functions

• Connecting high-speed traffic between devices
•  Adding security
security to
to control
control access and
and stop unauthorized
unauthorized network
network use
• Providing scalability for ease of network growth and redundancy
• Supplying network reliability for connecting to network resources

You can access the Cisco IOS through the console port of a router, from a
modem into the auxiliary (or Aux) port, or even through Telnet. Access to the IOS
command line is called an EXEC session.

Connecting to a Cisco Router

1. co
cons
nsol
olee por
portt
The console port is usually an RJ-45 (8-pin modular) connection
located at the back ofof the router. We use a console cable which is a
straight-through cable. One end of the cable is an RJ-45 jack which will
be connected to the router’s console port. The other end is a DB-9 serial
female port which will be connected to your laptop/PC’s DB-9 male serial
port. After connecting the router to your laptop/PC using the console
cable, we used Hyperterminal or Tera-Term software to configure the
router.
2. au
auxi
xili
liar
aryy po
port
rt
 An auxiliary
auxiliary port allows
allows you to configure
configure modem
modem commands so that
a modem can be connected to the router. It lets you dial up a remote
router and attach to the auxiliary port if the router is down and you need to
configure it out-of-band (meaning out of the network).
3. telnet
The third way to connect to a Cisco router is in-band, through the
program Telnet . (In-band means configuring the router through the
network, the opposite of “out-of-band.”). Telnet is a terminal emulation
emulation
program that acts as though it’s a dumb terminal. You can use Telnet to

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 Chapter 1
Cisco’s Internetworking Operating System (IOS)
connect to any active interface on a router, such as an Ethernet or serial
port.

4. SSH
The fourth way to connect to a router is using SSH which is
secured compared to the Telnet program.

Bringing Up a Router
When you first bring up a Cisco router, it will run a power-on self-test
(POST). If it passes, it will then look for and load the Cisco IOS from flash
memory—if an IOS file is present. Flash memory is electronically erasable
programmable read-only memory—an EEPROM.) After that, the IOS loads and
looks for a valid configuration—the startup-config—that’s stored in nonvolatile
RAM, or NVRAM.

Entering the CLI from a Non-ISR Router

user exec mode
Router>

privileged exec mode

Router> enable
Router#

Router# disable
Router>

 At this point, you can type logout from either mode to exit the console:
Router> logout

global configuration mode

Router# configure terminal
Router(config)#

To view all interfaces on the router:

Router#show ip interface brief 

To configure an interface:
Router(config)#interface fastethernet 0
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
Router(config-if)#no shutdown

Configuring a serial interface on a router involves an additional parameter –

clock rate. Clock rate is applied only on Data Communicating Equipment (DCE)
and not on Data Terminating Equipment (DTE). You can check if a cable is DTE

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Cisco’s Internetworking Operating System (IOS)

Banners
router(config)#banner motd #
Enter TEXT message. End with the character ‘#’.
This is a private network!!!
#

Enable Password
router(config)# enable password cisco

some IOS by default do not encrypt the password, then we should use an
additional command, service password-encryption to encrypt the password.

It is preferable to use the enable secret command instead of the enable

 password command. Enable secret not only encrypts the password but also
display the MD5 hash of the encrypted secret which can’t be played back.

Enable Secret
router(config)#enable secret cisco

Auxiliary Password
router(config)#line aux 0
router(config-line)#login
router(config-line)#password cisco

Console Password
router(config)#line console 0
router(config-line)#login
router(config-line)#password cisco

Telnet Password
router(config)#line vty 0 4
router(config-line)#login
router(config-line)#password cisco